The other day, while I was sorting out and organizing my bookmarks, I ran across this site called Letterhead Fonts1. I had completely forgotten about this site and the moment I saw it, I knew I had to feature them here on Design Informer. If you like typography, then this showcase is definitely for you.

Background

I contacted Chuck, the founder of Letterhead Font and asked him if I could feature the designs from his website and he graciously accepted.

Here is what Chuck had to say about Letterhead Fonts.

Letterhead Fonts began in October 1999 with 4 fonts.

As a sign painter who had come from a hand-lettering background, I couldn’t find the fonts I wanted – so I made them myself. Others also appreciated these styles and the website grew.

I’ve always preferred the older letters from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, so that is what I focused on most. Other artists joined me later. Today, Letterhead Fonts has 18 regular contributors (including myself) and over 300 fonts (I have removed several over the years). All of these artists are professionals in the sign and graphics industries, which gives them a unique perspective
and insight as to the balance of the letters.

The purpose of Letterhead Fonts remains the same as it was 10 years ago– to make unique, high quality fonts that serve a purpose. If it isn’t something that we would use ourselves or if it already exists, we won’t do it.

Letterhead Fonts only offers Postscript OpenType fonts. We stopped offering the horrible format of TrueType in 2007. Postscript is the only format that ensures the letters look exactly the way the original artist drew them. TrueType on the other hand, adds new points to the letters– thereby changing the shape of the letters. It’s like painting a masterpiece and then having someone Xerox it 50 times. Very frustrating.

Because we make all of our own fonts and sell them directly from our site, we can provide good customer service to our users. If anyone has a problem, we can fix the issue right away for them (or help them install the fonts or provide other technical assistance). We have our own server and a very advanced account system that keeps track of the customer’s purchases. When we release a new version of a particular font, it is automatically updated in everyone’s account so they can download it again.

Though this method of being both the creators and exclusive distributors is more work, I prefer this way of doing business over selling through a third party. Besides, who wants to give away 30-50% of their sales to someone else?

Showcase of Letterhead Font Designs

Here are just some of the designs that were created from Letterhead Fonts.

Please do not copy or post these images anywhere. Special permission was granted by Letterhead Fonts to Design Informer to use these designs.

To see more of the Letterhead Font designs, please make sure you visit their gallery22.

Well, thanks for viewing the Letterhead Font showcase. Do you like this vintage style typography? By the way, which one of the designs did you really like and why? Please let me know in the comments below.

One last thing, please bump and stumble this article so the rest of the design community can see these amazing designs. Thank you so much.

Yes, the typography in these designs are beautiful. A lot of customization in each design. I really like the old typographic style that are in these designs, reminds me of the hand-made signs from back in the day.

Amazing Typography….. Love the illustrations. I think he has a liking towards retro style graphics. Most of his design carry the vintage look. Every design is better than the last.

Visiting his website is like taking a tour in a vintage museum!! Great work, Chuck

Thanks a lot for sharing these Jad. This is definitely going to pump some motivation into typography enthusiasts (like me, for instance) to try to create such awesome illustrations…
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This is a fantastic collection with a very nice elaboration. I like how Design Informer offers unique experiences together with all its posts. Like Richie said, reading this website is like a trip to a museum! The letterhead fonts are embedded with so much detail and they have been used very intelligently!
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You got the eye candy part right! A great roundup of examples as well. Thanks for putting this together, it’s a great start for my Tuesday morning.
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It’s cool that you got special permission to use these pictures. It shows your good character to ask before just taking like most bloggers..
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Vintage typography is actually something that I really enjoy as well. The reason for this is because these typographic creations are meticulously hand-crafted and take so much time to design. It takes some serious skill to be able to design some of these.

I have followed & used LHF fonts for about 9 years now. the quality is great. The “Design Inspiration” logo you have featured on the main Typography Eyecandy is my business logo that I spent 6 months designing. You can check out my other designs at: DesignInspirationOnline.com
I serve as a graphic designer for print shops & logo design. There is a lot of talk about “retro” type here. Yes, there is a good amount of retro styles but I believe that decorative fonts don’t all belong in that category. Especially the script styles, I use these fonts daily in my work & my portfolio shows how I use each style.

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